The Swing Riot Manifesto

A dance event that promotes Lindy Hop, good swingin’ jazz and the Montreal street culture. A venue for people to express themselves and leave it all out on the dance floor. A moment that unites dancers and spectators together in shared creativity and inspiration.

Montreal Swing Riot features a full weekend of dancing in the heart of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, competitions and showcases, three nights of live music. Come share and get inspired!

During the event, you’ll have many occasions to learn and grow as a dancer through workshop classes with guests like Nathan Bugh & Gaby Cook, Sara Deckard, Jenny Shirar & Christian Frommelt, Jean-Charles Zambo (aka JOYSS), Latasha Barnes & Russell “Ironman” Campbell and a special musicality class led by our head DJ Steven Coombe alongside Les Royal Pickles.

You’ll also get to learn from the urban street dance community and there will be limited spots for a historical jazz walk through Little Burgundy where jazz legends like Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones grew up.

The judges will be looking for the best dancing with your partner (’cause it’s a partner dance), dancing with the music (musicality) and that special pizzazz that makes you stand out in the crowd. All competitors must hold a full weekend pass in order to compete in any match. The Relative Placement System will be used to determine Finalists and Champions (except when crowd judged).

Swing dancers chosen by the organization will battle against a team of top street dancers representing hip hop, krump, popping, locking, waacking and break. The winners chosen by the crowd will be declared champions of the Invitational Battle.

Open to dancers of all levels who are willing to battle their way to the Lindy Hop top. Competitors must register as a couple and pass a preliminary round danced in an All-Skate format (2 All-Skates + 1 ”spotlight” 16×8 of 2 couples at a time) in order to earn a spot in the finals to battle it out on the dance floor to live music by Gordon Webster. Judges will select the eight couples that will make the finals. Matchups in the final round will be determined by draw and these dancers will battle it out two couples at a time until only two couples remain. After each battle, the judge will point to the couple they feel deserves to move on. The final top two couple battle will be crowd judged. Finals will be danced to live music by Gordon Webster. The winners will be declared as the Swing Riot Warriors.

Open to dancers of all levels. Competitors will perform an original choreography lasting between 30 and 60 seconds either as couple or solo (no teams). Airsteps are permitted, but not required. Competitors will use recorded music from one of the following types: Big Band Swing, Hot Jazz/Dixieland/New Orleans or Gypsy Jazz/ Jazz Manouche. Dancers will be judge for their creativity, technique and presentation. Dancers are required to submit their music in advance to info@montrealswingriot.com

Open to dancers of all levels. Dancers are required to dance on various DJ’d music that will be suitable for solo vernacular jazz dances such as Jazz, Charleston, Blues, Big Apple, Black Bottom, Shim Sham and more. The preliminary round will feature all-skates and short spotlights. Judges will determine a number of finalists. During the finals, dancers will be matched randomly with a partner to form teams of two (duos), and teams will battle it out to crown a winner. The final is crowd judged.

Open to dancers of all levels. Competitors must register as a lead or follow AND in either the “Open” or the “Advanced” category. During the preliminary round of each category, competitors will dance to three songs, and will be matched at random with a new partner each song. Finals of the Open division will be danced in a spotlight format (one minute per couple) between two all skate dances, to live music by our featured band. The finals of the Advanced division will be in jam format. Mix & Match finals will be crowd judged.

Open to dancers of all levels. You may register as an individual or a couple and will be judged in the same division. Dancers will show their versatility and ability to adapt to different styles of jazz music (New Orleans trad jazz, big band swing, old timey jazz, bebop, boogie woogie). Finalists and champions will be chosen by our panel of judges.

Music

Trois soirées avec Naomi and Her Handsome Devils – Three Nights of Live Music!

Naomi & Her Handsome Devils are a 8 piece band striving for the sound of that swing era sweet spot. Naomi founded the Devils after working with some of the best bands on the swing dance/lindy hop scene, and as a top international lindy hopper herself she knew just what she wanted to hear on the dance floor and just who she wanted to play it. The Devils have decades of experience playing hot jazz as some of the top young talent in the Chicago and New York traditional jazz scenes, and Naomi hand picked her favorite musicians to come together and make music. Put it all together and you have a modern band with a vintage sound, swinging dance floors around the world.

Naomi & The Devils at SäntisHop in Teufen, Switzerland

Skye & Frida performing to Naomi & The Devils at Säntishop

DJ Steven Coombe

We’re happy to welcome Steven Coombe from London UK as our head DJ again this year at Swing Riot.

An international band leader and trumpet player, Steven has spent countless hours working out the kind of music that make people want to dance and keep dancing all night. Steve has led bands all over Europe playing for Lindy Hop festivals and competition weekends in London, Budapest, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Dublin, Rome, Ghent, Amsterdam, Oslo and Herrang to name a few. The European Swing Dance Championship was headlined by Steve’s ‘European Swing All Stars’ big band.

HOUSING?

Housing/hébergement: We have a housing coordinator this year! Please email us at housing@montrealswingriot.com so that we can match you with friendly local dancers. If you have space and would love to host out-of-town guests, please let us know.

Housing is first-come, first-served, and is not guaranteed. We’ll do our best to match you with local hosts, but do have a backup plan.

TRAVEL

When looking for a place to stay, our main venue Agora Hydro Québec is centrally located downtown, a 2min walk to the Quartier des Spectacles and all the Jazz Fest locations. Closest metro is Place des Arts, and the Montreal subway transit system is excellent for moving around the city. We also have a partner hotel, Hôtel Gouverneur Place Dupuis, which is centrally located. Use the code “170629MONT” when making your reservation to benefit from our group rate. You can call toll-free at 1-888-910-1111 in Canada or the US, and 514-842-4881 anywhere else.

From surrounding cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Rochester, the best is to drive up and share the cost with other dancers.

For direct flights to Montreal, Pierre Trudeau International Airport (YUL) is the airport you should choose. Once you arrive, there’s a shuttle bus from the airport called the 747, which is $10 CAD and gives you access to the entire STM system for 24 hours. You can find out more here. Cabs have a $40 CAD flat rate from the airport to downtown as well. Uber operates in Montreal, as does Téotaxi. More information can be found on the airport website.